Alana Nichols

Alana Jane Nichols (born March 21, 1983) is an American Paralympic wheelchair basketball player and alpine skier.

Childhood Alana Nichols was born in New Mexico and when she was nine months old, her father was killed by a drunk driver. Because her mother was struggling to raise Nichols and three other siblings, Nichols and her older sister, Jovan, were sent to their grandparents in Farmington, New Mexico. Growing up, Nichols spent winters snowboarding in Colorado. During one such snowboarding trip in 2000, she attempted a back flip but over-rotated and landed back-first on a rock. When the accident occurred, Nichols was taken by helicopter to the San Juan Regional Medical Center in Farmington and it took eight hours of surgery to reconstruct her back with two rods and three pins. The injury broke her T10/11 vertebrae and left her paralyzed from the waist down. After serving as an alternate for the U.S. women's team at the 2004 Summer Paralympics in Athens, was named to the national team in 2005, and helped the team win a silver medal in the 2006 Wheelchair Basketball World Championship.

In 2012, Nichols competed in the London Paralympics, where the United States women's wheelchair basketball team placed fourth.

Media career Nichols commentated for NBC during the 2021 Tokyo Paralympics.